and hang, he forced also Goldeburgh to the
altar, where the two were fast married by the
Archbishop of York.

To save his wife from shame, and to avoid
the manifest hatred of Godrich, Havelok
resolved instantly to leave Lincoln. And
whither could he take his bride for food and
shelter but to faithful Grim and his three
sons? So Havelok and Goldeburgh went to
Grimsby, where they found that Grim was
dead, but his five children were living, and
they came out joyfully to greet their foster
brother, bringing him constant love and
homage. Horse and cattle, boats, gold and
silver, Grim had left them. They said,—

We have sheep and we have swine,
We give them, lord, and all are thine;
Thou shall be lord, thou shall be sir,
And we shall serve both thee and her.

Their sisters should wait upon Goldeburgh
and take her for their lady. They brake
sticks, and they spared not goose nor hen, to
make a wedding festival.

In the night, as Goldeburgh lay sorrowing
for her hard lot, she saw a bright light in the
room, and found that it shone out of her
husband's mouth; she saw also a noble cross of
red gold on his shoulder, and heard the
voice of an angel: "Goldeburgh, lay thy
sorrow by, for Havelok, who hath espoused
thee, as the fair cross betokens, is a king's
son and heir. It betokens more: he shall
have Denmark and all England. Thou shalt
see it, queen and lady shalt thou be."
Then, in her gladness, she kissed Havelok
as he slept, and he awakening said to her,
"Wife, sleepest thou? I have been dreaming
a strange thing." He had dreamt that he
was in Denmark, on a high hill, and saw all
the land; that he stretched out his arms to it,
and that they grew so long as to embrace it
all, and when he sought to draw his arms
back, castles and towns clave to them, and
keys fell at his feet. Then he dreamt that he
crowned the sea, and in like manner compassed
England. Goldeburgh interpreted the dream
for him, and counselled him to go at once to
Denmark, taking with him Grim's three sons?
In the morning, Havelok, when he rose, went
to the church and prayed for strength against
Godard. his sisters' murderer; then he told
his beads, laid his offering upon the altar,
and prostrated himself before the cross.
When he went home, he found Grim's three
sons ready to go fishing, but he called them
to him, Robert the Rede, who was eldest,
William Wendath, and Hugh Raven, told
them his story and his purpose, and promised
each of them, if they went forth as his
companions, ten castles, with their lands and
towns.

Havelok and Goldeburgh, with the three
brothers, having reached Denmark, there
travelling as strangers and foreigners, asked
Ubbe, a great Danish earl, for leave to trade
about the country, and assured his friendship
by the gift of a gold ring. Ubbe bade him to
meet at his castle, and there entertained well
and honourably, both him and his wife. After
dinner, he sent them for lodging to the house
of the best man in the town, named Bernard
Brun. There, when they were set to supper,
the house was beset by sixty strong thieves,
with long knives and swords. They broke
the door through with a boulderstone; but
Havelok leapt up, and taking the bar from
the door, threw it open, pulled up the doorpost
for a weapon, and slew three at his first
stroke. He made the right eye of the fourth
fly out of its hole before he clapped him on,
the crown, he struck the fifth on the shoulders,
brake the neck of the sixth; but they all set
on him like dogs, and some with swords, and
some with clubs, and some with stones, struck
at him, till from twenty wide wounds his
blood flowed, as water from a well. Every
crown that he could reach Havelock cracked,
and soon had twenty dead men lying round
him. Raven, hearing the great din, looked
out, and saw men beating upon Havelok as
smiths upon an anvil. "Robert! William!"
he cried, "where are ye? Gripe each of you
a stout club, and follow me."

"Ya, leve, ya!" quoth Robert soon, "We
shall have full good light of the moon."

Robert gript a staff, and William a tree, and
Bernard held his axe, and they leapt forth like
wild men. They broke arms, they broke
knees, they broke shanks, they broke thighs;
they made crowns break and crack, of the
brown and of the black; they made backs
swell as round as bellies, and they thrashed
the thieves as easily as children that a mother
beats. They killed the sixty-one.

Now, in the morning, when Ubbe heard of
this, he went to see the bodies as they lay at
Bernard's door, and to hear on the spot
about the prowess of the stranger. A leech
pronounced Havelok's wounds curable, and
Ubbe took him to his own castle, to a room
opening upon his own chamber. In the
night, Ubbe saw a light bright as daylight
shining from the chamber in which his guest
lay. "At this hour," he thought, "only
thieves and gluttons watch. I must go see what
this light means." He went into Havelok's
room, and saw where he slept beside
Goldeburgh, the sunbeam shone out of his mouth,
and as he lay half-naked, a cross on his right
shoulder glistened like a carbuncle. Ubbe
knew that these were signs of royalty, and
when he looked closely at the sleeper's face,
he knew also that he was King Birkabeyn's
son, for never was there in Denmark likeness
between brothers greater than that
between Birkabeyn and his heir. He fell at
his feet and kissed them, toes, nails, limbs,
a hundred times, till Havelok awakened, and
suspecting treachery, could hear his
acknowledgment of fealty. On the morrow he
would knight him,—on the morrow homage
should be paid to him from all the country
round. In the morning, therefore, Ubbe